Mining

All around Silverton, where a series of mines – once lucrative, now abandoned – pock the earth like gaping, oozing wounds, the waters course with poison. Silverton resident Melody Skinner said her now dead dog Hannah wouldn’t drink water from Cement Creek – which U.S.

Poisonous metals flow from many abandoned mines near Silverton, but in 2015, the Environmental Protection Agency plans to address one that is draining hundreds of gallons of toxins a minute into the watershed.

It may help to clarify some issues regarding the Environmental Protection Agency’s participation with the Animas River Stakeholders Group and that agency’s potential to put Upper Cement Creek on the National Priorities List under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liabilities Act – aka Superfund.

A troubled Mancos gold-mining company was dealt another blow Wednesday, losing the bond for a mine it owns near Silverton. Red Arrow Gold Corp. already has been sanctioned for building an illegal mercury mill just outside the Mancos city limits.

According to a Durango Herald article, plans using a synthetic foam, a passive wetland, and even sugarcane are the latest that members of the Animas River Stakeholders Group are considering in the battle against toxic waste coming from abandoned hardrock mines

A former participant in an unofficial effort to eliminate toxic mine waste around Silverton has asked federal environmental and state health authorities to throw their full weight behind a rigorous cleanup program.

Plans using a synthetic foam, a passive wetland and even sugarcane are the latest that members of the Animas River Stakeholders Group are considering in the battle against toxic waste coming from abandoned hardrock mines.

U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton has promised he will introduce legislation in the House to protect “good Samaritans” – meaning vigilante river cleaners – from being sued for their good works. The announcement came at a meeting of the Animas River Stakeholders Group on Thursday in Silverton’s City Hall.

The Bureau of Land Management has acquired 285 acres of patented mining claims around Silverton as settlement in a lawsuit against a company that once operated the Mayflower Mill there. The agreement with Standard Metals Corp. consolidates BLM holdings in the Alpine Triangle and allows the agency to better protect cultural resources, wildlife habitat and viewsheds.

Peter Butler's late October tour of abandoned hardrock mines began high on Red Mountain Pass near Silverton, Colo., off a highway so narrow that, in places, its shoulder crumbles off cliffs. Butler, a water wonk with springy silver curls, is the co-coordinator of the Animas River Stakeholders Group, a local watershed group, which has been cleaning up abandoned mines for 18 years.